Who's your favorite penhold player?

[Rantrave]

There is no reason for him to 'improve' his RPB any more as it fits into his game fine as it is. And for someone like Xu Xin who is very confident in forehand to forehand loop rallies, he shouldn't be trying to change his style of play at all. I don't think his forehand will ever hold him back, plus he's doing very well at the moment isn't he and it looks to continue.

Yes there is, maybe not right now, but in the future. You think he can still be running around and hitting 90% forehand shots when he is over 30? I think not.

 

[Don]

For me, it is definitely Ma Lin. Ma Lin over the course of his career has reached a level of play that simply epitomizes what a good penhold player should be. He is getting older, but when he was in his prime and at his quickest, his combination of amazing serves with his utter mastery of the short game made his 3rd ball attack orientated game unstoppable for everyone but Wang Liqin. The things that make a good penhold player are good serves, good footwork/speed and amazingly versatile forehand, and mastery of the short game, and in terms of these things, no one mastered them all better than Ma Lin. It's why even now, despite being slower and not having the advantage of the reverse penhold backhand, he still beats Wang Hao more often than he loses.

Despite the fact that during most of his prime he was kind of in the shadow of WLQ, he still represents for me probably the most legendary penholder, think of how much he would have won if WLQ wasn't in the picture!

I think this is a great post and is very true. One thing I'll like to add is that Ma Lin is getting older and thus becoming a tad slower and less agile, but I think it is his ability to adapt to the new generation of table tennis. Like you said before not having the advantage of the reverse penhold backhand, but he is slowly adding the RPB to his repertoire. You can see him using the RPB more and more in his play, compared to back in his prime where you only did a backhand block.

As for my favorite penholders it would be Wang Hao first, Ma Lin second, and Xu Xin third.

I like Wang Hao because I feel that he is the epitome of the RPB. Although he wasn't the first player to use it I think he uses it to it's fullest and now has become a major weapon of his.

Ma Lin is going to be a legend no matter what happens in his career as of now, and he'll definitely will be one of my favorite players of all time.

Xu Xin is getting there he has a lot potential and I believe he'll be #1 one day along with Ma Long and Zhang Jike.

 

[iTT]

Yes there is, maybe not right now, but in the future. You think he can still be running around and hitting 90% forehand shots when he is over 30? I think not.

I can't see someone who is coming to his best at the moment to suddenly start thinking about how he's going to get better when he's 30. It's just completely irrelevant at this stage in his career.

(I don't really want to have an argument on the forums, so I'm not going to directly reply to you about this any more).

 

[sidthelefty]

Wang Hao...hes the reason im switching to penhold